Mechanism for drying the paper in printing presses



G. A. FRIESS F eb. 28, 1939.

I MEGHANISM FOR DRYINGTHE PAPER 1N PRINTING PRESSES Filed Aug. `3, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet l ATTORNEY BY qm d Feb' 28, 1939,

MBCHANISM FOR DRYING THE PAPER IN PRINTING PRESSES Filed Aug, 3l 1935 mb 10a 2 Sheets-sheet 2 (N/ENTOR BY @Md- ATTO Patented Feb. 28, 1939 PATENT OFFICE MEcHAmsM Fon DRYING THE PAPER 1N Piemme PRESSES Gustave A. Frless, Rye, N. Y., assignor to News Syndicate Co. Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application August 3, 1935, Serial No. 34,561

2 Claims.

My invention relates to a new an'd improved method of and new and improved mechanism for drying the paper in a printing press.

One of the objects of my invention is to dry 5 the paper, after the paper-.has been printed, so as to effectively remove the solvent which is an ingredient of the printing ink.

Another object of my invention is to provide a simple and convenientmethod and apparatus whereby the fumes or vapors of the solvent will be effectively withdrawn from the room i'n which the printing is taking place, thus diminishing re hazard, and also diminishing the hazard to the health of the workmen.

' 15 Another object of my invention isv to provide a method and mechanism whereby air, either heated or unheated, is caused'to move in the form of a current along the paper, subsequent to the printing of the paper, and this air current is then drawn into an exhaust chamber or compartment,

the air then being discharged into any suitable outlet.y A

Another object of my invention is to provide a device of this kind which can be readily installed in connection with a standard printing press, and in which the essential partsA of the mechanism can be moved so as to permit access to the essential parts of. the printing press.

y Other objects of my invention will be set forth in the following description and drawings, which illustrate a preferred embodiment thereof, it being understood that the above general statement of the objects -of my invention is intended generallyto illustrate the same, but without limiting it in any manner.

Fig. 1 is a iront elevation showing one form of apparatus which can be used for lthe purposes of my invention.

Fig. 2 is a side4 elevation of Fig. 1, taken at the 40 left-hand side of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an elevation taken at the inner side of the hoo'd which forms one of the elements of the invention.

Fig. 4 is a side elevation showing the righthand side of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is an elevation taken at the left-hand side of. Fig. 3.

Referring to Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, the device is provided` with a blower B, or any other-suitable device for producing a current of air.

The blower or fan B is operated by means of a motor 8.

As indicated by the arrow at the left hand side of Fig. 2, the air is drawn inwardly into the casing of the blower`B, through a compartment or chamber 1, which serves as an inlet for the casing of the blower B. The intake end of said member I can be provided with a wire screen or the like.

The air is forced downwardly through the cas- 5 ing I0, which communicates at its bottom with branch casings IIla and IIlb.

As shown at the left hand side of Fig. 1, the branch casing Illa communicates with a pipe II, and this pipe I I communicates with the compart- 10 ment 26 of a horizontal pipe I2. As shown in Fig. 4 and in Fig. 5, the pipe I2 is divided by means of a partition 25, into compartments 26 and 26a.

This partition 25 is imperforate. 15

The compartment or chamber 26 of the pipe I2, communicates with a compartment or chamber I9a of a hood H. Said compartment I 9a is provided with a series of outlets I4, at the upper end of the hood H. In this particular em- 20 bodiment I have shown four outlets I4, but I can provide any desiredV number of said outlets.

As shown in Fig. 3, angle irons 6 are provided between the respective openings I4, and also at the left-hand end of the left-hand opening I4` 2f;`

and also at the right-hand end of the right-hand opening i4.

The purpose of these angle irons 6 is to dvide the inner face of the hood H into a series of sections. These angle irons 6 are removable. 30

If, for example, the web of paper has the full width of the hood H, all of said openings I4 can be opened. If, however, the web of paper has a Vwidth Which is less than the entire width of the hood H, one or more ofsaid openings I4 can be 35 closed.

The discharge openings vI4 are controlled by means of shutters I5. The shutters I5 for each discharge opening I4 can be adjusted individually, by means of. manually operated handles I5a. 40

I have not shown the specific mechanism whereby the shutters I 5 can be operated by turning the handle I5a, as any suitable conventional connecting mechanism may be provided.

Hence I can completely close any of the open- 45 ings I4, or I can control the amount of air which is discharged from any said opening I4, by operating the shutters I5.

The air which is thus discharged at the upper end of the hood H, is directed downwardly 50 and said air sweeps downwardly in the form yoi a downwardlydirected current, along the inner face of said hood H.

'At the bottom of said hood H a series of inlet openings I6 are provided. Said openings I6 may forced out of`openings I4, sincey compartmentA I9a is closed, save at its upper end.

The upper end of the compartment-or chamber I9 communicates with vthe discharge compartment 26a of the pipe I2. 'I'he intake openings I6 are located at the lower end of compart- Vment I9.

The outlet compartmentr 26a 'communicates' with an outlet pipe 20, which corresponds generally to the pipe II which has previously been mentioned. The pipe 26 is connected by means of the pipe 2|, to a casing 60, and air is 'exhausted from said casing 60 by means of a suction fan Ba, which is operated by means of av motor 24. The air is thus discharged through a suitable outlet pipe 23, which can be located outside of the building or connected to any suitablev chamber for discharging the vexhausted process.y yThe roller I is the usual impression roll-` er, having an outer sleeve made of resilient rubber or the like.' Pressure is supplied by means of the usual roll 2.

The freshly printed web of paper is therefore led upwardly adjacent the inner face of the hood H. For this purpose, the web of paper is guidedv by meansof a seriesof. idler rollers4, which are mounted in a frame 30. As shown inFig. 1,

'the' frame 30 in which therollers 4 are mounted,

is connected tothe frameF of the machine, by means of brackets 4I.

Fig. 1 shows one of said idler rollers 4, and it can be noted'that the length of each roller 4 is approximately equalfto the width of the hood H The inner face of the hood H is provided with projections ,6 I, which t in corresponding grooves in xtheframe 30, so that any side leakage of the air isprevented.

v As the freshly-printed web of paper is led upwardly along and adjacent to the hood H, the wet ink on the paper is dried by the downwardly moving current of air.

'I'he drying action results lin rapid vaporiza-v' tion of the solvent which has been used in the ink. Since the air is -drawn into the lower end of the hood H, through the inlet openings lI6,

the fumes or vapors are drawn directly into the compartment I9, so that said fumes can be discharged through the pipe `2I.

The web of paper is also led around a roller 5, which may be heated.. Hence, and as shown in Fig. J2, the web of paper is heated in a zone which is spaced from the zone of printing.l The air current moves in a direction away from the zone of heating and towards the zone of printing, and in a direction which is counter to the direction of movement of the freshly printed web.

Before the web of paper is withdrawn from l the printing press, and after it has passed over the heated roller-5, theweb may be moved downwardly alongthe inner face of a hood Ha., which corresponds in every respect to the hood H,`save that the hood Ha is shorter than the hood` H.

The branch casing Illbcommunicates with the inlet compartment of the hood Ha, by means identical with those which have previously been described. f

Likewise, the outlet or exhaust compartment of the hood Ha, communicates with the exhaust casing 60, by means of any suitable connection.

This connection. may be similar to the branch casing Ib.

For convenience in using the machine, the hoods H and Ha may be swung outwardly.

As shown in Fig. 1, a manually operated handle 32 operates one of a pair of meshing bevel-gears 33. These gears turn a shaft 34. and this operates one of a pair of meshing bevel-gears 35, thus operating a horizontal shaft upon which the gear 36 is mounted. The gear 36 meshes with another gear 3l r(see Fig. 2), andthis gear 31 meshes with a segment 36, which is mounted upon a shaft 59.

Said shaft 59 has another member mounted thereon, this other member being similar to the member 38; but without the teeth.

Thesegment 38 has a rod 39 pivotally connected thereto, and said rod 39 is pivotally connected to the hood Ha.v

The segment 38 also has a rod 40 pivotally connected thereto,k and said rod 49 is pivotally connected to the hood H.

The other member which is mounted upon the shaft 59 has similar rods, so that connecting means are provided at each end face of the hood H and of the hood Ha.

By turning the handle 32, the hoods H and Ha can therefore be simultaneously turned in opposite directions, and away from the means for guiding the web of paper.

In order to permit this turning movement of the hoods H and Ha, the said hoods are con-A nected to the pipes II and 20 which are locatedl at their upper ends, so that said hoods turn in unison with said pipes.

The pipes II, vI2 and 20 may be connected so that they turn in unison with the hoods H and Ha, suitable bearings being provided.

The web of paper is thus dried by one or more counter-currents of air, each current being forced out of the outlet or outlets of a hood, and being forced into the inlet or inlets of the hood. Each hood has its outlets and inlets located at its inner face. The exhaust means Ba draw the air into the hood. The suction fan Ba has a greater capacity than the'. pressure `fan B. That is, during the operation of the device, the suction fan Ba can take in more air than is delivered by the pressure fan B. Hence some air is drawn upwardly along the inner surface of the hood, in addition to the air supplied by the current which iskdelivered by pressure fan B. vThis insures the effective removal of the vapors from the printing cylinder 3, and from that portion of the web between said cylinder and the bottom of hood H. The hood H may be of any desired length, and its lower end may extend to the level of cylinder 3, or to any desired distance below-the top of said cylinder 3. The arrow in Fig. r2, shows how the vapors are removed. The air is exhausted away from the web in substantially a single zone which corresponds to the inlet open.. ings I6 so that the air current has a suiiciently a chamber which is tightly' closed save for an ,inlet opening and an outlet opening.

'Ihe air current is confined between the web of paper, the inner face of the hood and the lateral projections 6|. The exhaust elect is so powerful as to prevent any substantial escape of the vaporized solvent vapor into the press room.

Many of the details shown herein may be omittedor varied without departing from the invention.

For example, I do not wish to be limited to'any specific guide means for leaving the web of paper in substantially planar form, while the solvent is being removed from the ink. I have shown a. preferred embodiment of my invention but it is clear that numerous changes and omissions can be made without departing from its spirit.

I claim:-

1. A method of drying a printed web of paper while moving said web of paper, which consists i in directing a counter current of air along the printed surface of the web oi' paper, then heating the web of paper at the rear surface of the paper byfdirect conduction from a heated member and then subjecting the printed surface of the heated paper to a second current of air, moving in the same direction as lthe paper, while substantially preventing any'escape of the air which is forced along the printed side of the paper.

2. In combination with means for printing a web of paper, a heated roller spaced from said printing means and adapted to contact with the rear surface of the web of paper after said web 'has been printedv upon, a hood located upon eral escape of the air.

' GUSTAVE A. FRIESS. 

